Holiday Inn (1942)

Cast

Bing Crosby
as Jim Hardy
Fred Astaire
as Ted Hanover
Marjorie Reynolds
as Linda Mason
Louise Beavers
as Mamie

Get more information about Holiday Inn (1942) on IMDb

Genres & Description

Action Comedy Drama Music Musical Romance

7.5 / 10

Lovely Linda Mason has crooner Jim Hardy head over heels, but suave stepper Ted Hanover wants her for his new dance partner after femme fatale Lila Dixon gives him the brush. Jim's supper club, Holiday Inn, is the setting for the chase by Hanover and manager Danny Reed. The music's the thing.

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Comments on this trailer
Comments may include spoiler!

Cory D.

i got the original movie with the blackface scene..its great - @Saturday, January 5, 2019 3:10 AM

Andre Andre

This film has a racist scene in the part at 47:00 where Crosby begins to put on the blackface for Marjorie Reynolds ( Linda ) and she says " Ohhhh, for a month and a half I've been dreaming how pretty I was going to look tonight, well...here's my PUNISHMENT for thinking so well of myself " and Crosby says; "Oh, you'll have plenty of time to be pretty" Suggesting that Black skin is a Punishment and isn't pretty enough for her and then Crosby reinforcing she'll have plenty of time to be pretty.... so what's a Black child watching this scene think of themselves looking in the mirror and wondering "am I not pretty" images and words that have negative connotations do Matter in the minds of people especially the young. I don't believe in censorship but a child of color who doesn't have the correct guidance on what they see in American cinema can grow up being very destructive to themselves or others in life. Yeah yeah I get it when many White Americans don't like it when their classic films or literature novels are being censored but that's the price insensitive writers have to keep in mind when using people who are not included in society as the butt of jokes or by making themselves look better at the expense of others misfortunes. Writers can and should be smart when being creative in fiction storytelling, I believe a writer can use any word they like.. but keep it in context and keep it respectful to EVERYONE & MINDFUL. That's why the CREATOR has given us minds, because its easy to be blatantly hurtful but it takes time and skill to be charitable and helpful in storytelling. It all starts with RESPECT if we don't have that as a start then......... - @Friday, December 14, 2018 3:39 PM

Hector Barbosa

Thank GOD, I don't watch any movies or TV shows for any lessons on what's right or wrong! My mother raised me to recognize those on my own! I do enjoy this movie, and I see it as a product of it's time. Even in today's movies and TV shows, I see characterations and situations that people in the future will find offensive! - @Sunday, December 2, 2018 9:01 AM

KA Suverkrubbe

Most of the songs in this movie are embarassing and just bad. - @Monday, November 26, 2018 4:34 AM

Yeslets

I wouldn’t have a problem with some editing.I can definitely enjoy this film without the blackface bit. It’s especially cringeworthy when a black actress is made to sing about “darkies”. Ouch - @Monday, November 26, 2018 4:22 AM

Kevin Ceniceros

1:52, I'm never gonna think of him the same again. - @Wednesday, November 21, 2018 6:17 PM

aristotlestudent

Oh...I've been so hurt...the blackface scene...just like when the Wayans did White Girls in whiteface...I was hurt then too... I was hurt because I'm better than you...more sensitive...LOL - @Tuesday, October 30, 2018 12:01 PM

Lerxstification

HOW DARE YOU SHOW BLACKFACE!!!!! (jkjkjkjk) - @Tuesday, October 30, 2018 3:09 AM

Dave G

I love this movie, watch it every year, and enjoy all the songs. Irving Berlin did himself and America justice in all of his songs. I especially enjoy the song "Abraham". And I think those who are offended by the 'blackface' musical need to strap on your big boy pants, grow up, move on with your life and quit blaming everyone else for your misfortunes. Nobody alive today has lived in abject white Southern slavery. So your perceived enslavement is in your head and not a fact of reality. Get Over It! I'm 50% Irish. I do not live my life by how bad the Irish were treated in this country 100 years ago. But let's not forget, It is now prestigious to declare Black Indignitation and get something for nothing. The only thing you are going to get from me is a big fat Middle finger and a "Go F*** yourself! Fat A$$!" - @Friday, October 26, 2018 2:15 PM

Bill Olsen

Oh yeah, Irving Berlin's first score in the flicks...100% class. - @Tuesday, August 7, 2018 10:58 PM

Dr. killpatient

Don' t forget the mammy & her two chicken- licking off- spring. Equally as humilating as the Abraham number. - @Sunday, July 22, 2018 7:22 PM

Mikey Condry

Love love Bing and Fred, this is a great movie. - @Wednesday, June 13, 2018 12:15 AM

Dan K

Why are the libs trying to forget the past. We are doomed to repeat it if we do.... - @Sunday, December 31, 2017 5:48 PM

DetTigerFan

Great movie...one of the best Christmas movies out there! - @Friday, December 8, 2017 5:31 PM

DetTigerFan

Fortunately, I got to see this movie last night at a local theatre that shows classic movies, and they showed the movie in its original, unedited form. Also, the DVD that you can purchase of this movie is unedited. - @Friday, December 8, 2017 5:31 PM

Sean Wilkinson

I'll forever love this movie, even with its blackface warts and all, if only for Der Bingle name-dropping the city I call home, even though I wasn't actually born here, but moved here with my family at age 9 from Calgary and quickly grew to love it dearly, so that I call it my truest home: "For that kind of money, you ought to be able to go by way of Medicine Hat." Yeah, Medicine Hat! Famously noted by Rudyard Kipling in a well-known quote after visiting our town: "This part of the country seems to have all hell for a basement, and the only trap door appears to be Medicine Hat. And you don't even think of changing the name of your town. It's all your own and the only hat of its kind on earth." That was 1907, after the city was founded in 1883, and quoted in reference to "hell's basement", being Medicine Hat's huge underground supplies of methane (natural gas), accidentally (and happily) unearthed when the young town was drilling for water wells. And it was also made to influence town fathers from changing the somewhat eccentric and idiosyncratic city name of Medicine Hat for a conventional and dull alternative. "To my mind, the name of Medicine Hat echoes the old Cree and Blackfoot tradition of red mystery and romance that once filled the prairies. Also it hints at the magic that underlies the city in the shape of your natural gas. Believe me, the very name is an asset, and as years go on will become more and more of an asset. It has no duplicate in the world; it makes men ask questions . . . and draws the feet of the young towards it; it has the qualities of uniqueness, individuality, assertion and power. Above all, it is the lawful, original, sweat-and-dust-won name of the city and to change it would be to risk the luck of the city, to disgust and dishearten old-timers, not in the city alone, but the world over, and to advertise abroad the city’s lack of faith in itself." Its name truly has drawn people to Medicine Hat. My old high school chemistry teacher said he chose to immigrate here from Iran thanks to the unusually compelling name, as did my Sri Lankan elementary social studies teacher and her media-star husband, and I'm certain the same applies to my South African-born GP and numerous others I associate with, or simply meet casually. I mean, the name "Medicine Hat" virtually commands curiosity and interest. Thank goodness we did not change the fledgling towns name to something boring like "Smithville", "Frankburg" or something equally nondescript. Medicine Hat and Medicine Hatters (or, more commonly, just The Hat and Hatters) forever. - @Monday, December 5, 2016 1:47 AM

DJ Kinney

22 comments. - @Thursday, September 29, 2016 4:44 AM

Nighttiger

My favorite movie of all time. They don't make them this great any more. I watch this movie every year after Christmas and before New Years Day. I wish people would stop commenting about their racial politics. This just a fun feel good film. - @Friday, January 1, 2016 2:21 AM

hebneh

The blackface of "Abraham" is downright weird now, but I still very much like the way the song sounds as it's performed here. Marjorie Lord, when she appears on the stage to sing her segment, looks the most bizarre of any of them. - @Friday, December 25, 2015 7:38 AM

Steve Owens

I love that shot starting at 3:16 - @Tuesday, December 15, 2015 6:45 AM

Jeffrey Wendt

I think this may have been the last major Hollywood movie that featured blackface- I certainly can't think of one after this. - @Saturday, July 4, 2015 8:12 PM

LazlosPlane

Love this movie. Maybe my favorite musical. No other movie with such talent. Blackface? No big deal to them, or to blacks of the time, no big deal to me Everything is relative. - @Monday, May 4, 2015 9:44 PM

Marilyn E. Jess

This was 1942--think about how badly the war effort was going for the Allies. We needed a musical with great songs. The Abraham scene fit into the times, THEN. - @Sunday, April 5, 2015 7:21 PM

D Abbott

Thank you for this review. I agree with all of it, including my current discomfort with the blackface dance and word "darkie" (though it's important to the story, it is disgusting now). I did recall the important aspect that I'd forgotten: This came out at the *start* of WWII, and that explains much about the setting and the way in which so many numbers had been woven throughout. I just use the February scene as my time to get a snack. - @Sunday, December 21, 2014 5:59 PM

John Belz

The "blackface" Abraham left out of "Holiday Inn" last night on Hallmark. - @Saturday, November 8, 2014 2:09 AM

pdquick1

It turns out the blackface scene is edited out of currently broadcast versions, which unfortunately does some damage to the narrative. The blackface is one of the lengths to which Jim (Bing Crosby) goes to hide Linda (Marjorie Reynolds) from Ted (Fred Astaire), who wants her as his new partner, and love interest. I watched this film annually for many years, and grew increasingly embarrassed at the presence of the blackface scene. But I think it's worse to have it censored out. I'd rather see the whole thing, including the blackface, and have the opportunity to contemplate and be uncomfortable with the film as produced, than have someone else deciding that I can't see it. - @Friday, November 7, 2014 6:37 AM

Kim Fredericks

They always have to put political correct explanations to all American things. - @Friday, April 15, 2011 2:52 AM

dani9714

I just adore Fred Astaire! He was amazing, and his films always make me feel better, especially the ones with Ginger Rogers. I wish I could dance like them! - @Sunday, April 10, 2011 6:35 AM

jayant asodekar

jrj4u.com - @Tuesday, October 19, 2010 4:05 PM

dorsy2

I saw this movie when it first came out. It was wildly popular at the time. I have a tape of it and when I want to lift up my drooping spirits, it's certain to do the trick. Love the whole feeling of it. - @Saturday, February 28, 2009 12:37 AM